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I'm using Ubuntu 12.10

I have a folder inside /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/themes/myFolder called myFolder. Inside myFolder there are subfolders. Now I cannot remove it via the GUI, and when using terminal it also does not work, perhaps because I'm doing it wrong. I said:

sudo rmdir /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/themes/myFolder/* 

and I also tried just rm, but it keeps telling me "directory not empty" and some other errors as well. How do I delete it then that folder with all its contents?

Thank you

2 Answers 2

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sudo rm -R /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/themes/myFolder/*

-R to recursively remove anything inside it (and deeper).

This also removes files (not just directories).

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  • what about sudo rm -rf ...?
    – MiJyn
    Nov 28, 2012 at 18:31
  • It is the same. The only difference is that -f flag means --force ignore nonexistent files, never prompt. No message will appear telling you that you are going to delete something.
    – Diego
    Nov 28, 2012 at 18:59
  • @MiJyn the f is only to not ask for confirmation ;)
    – Rinzwind
    Nov 28, 2012 at 19:34
  • yeah, of course, but I don't like being at my terminal always asked for confirmation of file deletion (especially if there are many)
    – MiJyn
    Nov 28, 2012 at 19:37
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    me too @MiJyn but on AU I always choose the safer option ;)
    – Rinzwind
    Nov 28, 2012 at 19:39
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Complementing the answer of Rinzwind, you can also do it through GUI. You probably didn't have permissions to remove it as a normal user. Then, you need to launch file explorer as root. You can launch GUI as root by two different ways:

  • Alt+F2 gksu nautilus
  • Or, in a terminal, type sudo nautilus

In both ways, you can navigate to myFolder and delete it.

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  • 1
    Also correct. Just do not use it for anything else... bad things can happen if you do :)
    – Rinzwind
    Nov 29, 2012 at 8:30
  • @Rinzwind: good advice :)
    – Yamaneko
    Nov 29, 2012 at 13:32

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